The Gates of Night_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [96]
“You don’t think your disguise will hold up, then?” Daine said.
“Please, Master Daine,” Kin replied, “my abilities are not a concern. They would not suspect me. But the Riedrans fear foreigners, and the mere sight of strangers will likely cause alarm.”
“Then I suppose I’m in her majesty’s debt.” Daine sighed and pulled the glamerweave cloak out of his pack. The shifting black patterns made it all but invisible in the shadows of night. “Lei, can you make a temporary cloak of invisibility?”
Lei nodded. “It’ll take a little time, but it’s simple enough.”
“Pierce, Xu, I want you to scout ahead. We need to know what we’re up against.”
Lei looked troubled, and she hesitated slightly before she spoke. “There’s something else. I’m not sure if it will work, but …”
“Yes?” Daine said.
Lei closed her eyes, a look of deep concentration settling over her features. For a moment, nothing happened. Then Pierce spoke.
“I hear you, my lady.”
“What are you talking about?” Daine said
Lei opened her eyes. “It’s the bond that let me heal and hurt him before. I can touch Pierce at a distance. I thought we might be able to communicate through it, and it seems that we can.” She looked at Pierce. “Here, try to respond without speaking.” She closed her eyes again, and after a moment she smiled. “Good.”
“I remember Lakashtai doing the same thing,” Daine said. “Can you bring the rest of us in?”
Lei shook her head. “No. This is just between Pierce and me.”
“Still,” Daine said, “it’ll help for coordinating actions. Pierce, Xu, move out. See what you can see, and wait for word from Lei.” He looked at Xu’sasar. “Is that understood?”
“Yes,” she said. She felt the slightest hint of shame because Daine thought this necessary. This was a situation of great import, and she knew just how critical it was for their pack to work as one. She would prove her worth in time.
It was a pleasure to dismount from the horse and to feel the soil beneath her feet once more. “Take lead,” she said to Pierce. “I will follow.”
She drew on the shadows in her blood, winding herself in the comforting dark. She held the Tooth of the Wanderer, still in the shape of the bone wheel, and for the first time since they’d entered the realm of Dusk, she found herself at ease. The enemy was ahead of them. The hunt was on.
The giants of Xen’drik built with stone, and Xu’sasar never imagined that metal could be worked on so vast a scale. The monolith was a smooth steel ovoid, easily a hundred times her height. She saw no guards in their path, but they had traveled only a short distance when Pierce raised his hand. Xu’sasar had learned only a few of the signals the others used, but this one was easy enough. Stop.
Xu’sasar dropped into the grass. She called on the spirit of the scorpion, drawing on the stillness of the hidden hunter to conceal her from her enemies. None too soon, for a moment later the enemy was upon them.
There was no sign of movement on the plains, no hint of human activity. Yet in that moment, Xu’sasar felt a presence. They were being watched, of that she had no doubt. As a child she had ventured into the City of Tears, although the teller of tales had warned her of the ghosts; she’d felt the same sense of presence in that place, a force of personality beyond mere flesh and blood. Xu’sasar held her breath, letting the spirit of the scorpion calm her fear and hold her in stillness, and a moment later the presence was gone.
Continue, Pierce signaled.
While Xu’sasar did not understand all that the Dusk Queen had said, she gathered that Pierce had a bond with a lesser spirit that advised him on matters of magic. Most likely this guide could see the guardian that had passed them.
Motion! There were openings set into the base of the great metal seed, wide arches filled with pale light. And as they moved forward, Xu’sasar saw the silhouette of a man pass across the portal. The figure was only caught in the light for an instant, but that was long